Second Electric Set – Gunnar Roads BandThis year really seems to be flying by quickly. Pretty soon it will be time for the Journey to Memphis, then the Waterfront Blues Festival, the CBA picnic, Muddy Awards and on and on. Last month’s meeting was phenomenal! What a turn-out! Who says music fans don’t go out in the middle of the week? At least we know blues people will.Another great night scheduled for the May meeting. We’ll be opening up with singer/songwriter Steve Rodin who is always a lot of fun with his crisp and tasteful guitar playing and his often humorous and always insightful original lyrics. His music can be emotional and it can be feel good about life exciting; along with his rapport with the audience, Rodin is an entertainer worth sitting back and giving a close listen to. He will be joined by Tony Lahaina, who is also a crafty guitarist, harmonica ace and vocalist in his own right. These guys work often together, so they have a natural feel that carries nicely. If you’re a fan of acoustic music, this will be a set right up your alley.It sure seems that we’ve been watching Gunnar Roads perform for many years more than it really has. Maybe it’s because he is talented far beyond his actual 16 years. And he has been right in the public’s eye with exceptional shows that have rightly earned him high recognition, including receiving two nominations for Portland Music Awards for outstanding achievement in the blues and a Muddy Award nomination for best new act. The Gunnar Roads Band will be the second set of the night at our meeting, with Gunnar on guitar and vocals, 20 year old Jackson Brannon behind the drums and 19 year old Connor Ghormley propelling the bass and adding additional vocals. It is quite inspiring to witness so much talent amongst musicians this young pursuing the path of the blues and I have stated in the past with such artists that we’re watching the future of the blues in Portland here and now. And it couldn’t be in better hands.Make a point to get your free drawing ticket at the door as you enter The Melody Ballroom for your chance to win fun prizes like CDs, concert tickets, meal certificates and whatever else we can come up. And if you want to help the CBA further, purchase a raffle ticket or however many you’d like to possibly win the multi-CD package we’ve put together for the night. Remember, it’s your annual membership and these raffle ticket sales, along with the admission from non-members that help keep the CBA in business. Without your help we would not be able to publish a newspaper or hold special events. Thank you for allowing this to continue; you’re

A homeless Tampa man who robbed a bank and made his getaway on a public bus decided he'd spread the wealth with some of the passengers, police said.

Elmer McGuirt, 27, was arrested Thursday after pulling off the Robin Hood-like heist, according to tampabay.com.
Police say McGuirt walked into a Wachovia branch around 4:30 p.m. and handed a teller a note demanding money, then walked out with an undisclosed amount of cash.
Having no car to make his getaway with, McGuirt hopped on a public transit bus, where he began handing out some of his loot to passengers while keeping some for himself.
But the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office contacted the bus driver, who pretended to have a mechanical failure in order to stop the bus.
When the bus pulled over, McGuirt and the other passengers got off, and waiting deputies arrested the homeless holdup artist.
McGuirt was charged with robbery and booked into jail. Police said they were able to get some of the money back from passengers.

The president of Local 85 of the Amalgamated Transit Union went before the Port Authority Board to urge them to resume negotiations over contract concessions so that service that was cut by 15% a month ago can be restored.
Pat McMahon says there have been no contract talks since Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato left a meeting 4 weeks ago. During the public comment period at the PAT Board meeting, McMahon told board members they should either resume negotiations or resign.
It was Onorato who rejected an offer of $18.5 million in temporary concessions by the union, not the PAT Board. At the time, Onorato said he became involved because the PAT Board had already made its decision about service cuts. Onorato said the concessions offer did not address the legacy costs of health care and pensions for retired PAT workers.
PAT CEO Steve Bland said at the end of yesterday's board meeting that they gave the union information about health care costs 2 weeks ago, but have not received a reply.

". . .Superman is an Illegal Alien who crossed the border in a spaceship, lives under an alias, spies through walls with x-ray vision (unconstitutional), invades air-space with zero regard for air control (illegal) and in more than one occasion has used public property (buses, light posts, train tracks, etc.) to beat the living daylights out of people (criminals, granted but AMERICAN criminals, protected under the US constitution, and innocent until found guilty in a court of law), effectively a vigilante!"

"…And you want this man Alien to be an American? "

"Can he produce a birth certificate? How did he get into Journalism School, how did he land a job at the Daily Planet without a SSN?"

Friday, April 29, 2011

For those of us who are dismayed at TriMet’s seemingly never-ending service cuts and fare increases, the contract dispute between the transit agency and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757 is a bit disconcerting.I say disconcerting because on the one hand it’s clear TriMet is in a bind financially, what with the recession and the agency’s dependence on volatile, steeply declining payroll taxes. On the other hand, vilifying bus drivers as grasping public employees is hardly appealing. Nor is the notion that cutting benefits, especially a benefit as fundamental as health care, is the only way to financial solvency.To help me sort all this out, I turned to my old friend Don McIntosh: associate editor of the NW Labor Press and my go-to guy on all things labor union.Here are a few of his insights:Driving a bus is a high stress-repetitive motion occupation and bus drivers as a population are extremely unhealthy. “These guys suffer from high levels of obesity, hypertension and heart disease,” Don says.In short: “Bus drivers have very high utilization rates for health care services.”What’s the takeaway? “TriMet and the union should put efforts into preventive health. The best thing for these guys would be a half hour a day of paid calisthenics.”At the same time–incessant carping about the union’s lavish health benefits—a practice favored by the Oregonian editorial board –is misguided.The problem isn’t that ATU health care benefits are too generous–they are too expensive, says Don. In that context, TriMet and the bus drivers’ union are both scapegoats for much larger problems: inadequate federal investment in public transportation and skyrocketing health care costs.“Legacy and Providence are building $100 million palaces and doctors are paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. We’ve got an out of control medical- industrial complex and TriMet is footing the bill.”I brook no disagreement with Don. As SEIU Local 49 executive director Ron Ruggiero noted last month, unions should be at the forefront of transit activism, urging employers to fund transit passes for workers and helping to spread the gospel of transit as a clean, green urban transportation solution.Maybe this isn’t a union-management battle after all. It’s a battle everyone should be fighting–for universal health care and a stable, well-funded bus network that gets all of us where we want to go.

The mysterious, unknown white D40LF was sitting at Barbur TC on the left side of the driveway where the 94s that make a return inbound trip as a 12 layover. Interestingly, there is a trip permit in the windshield. No driver to be found, nothing on the headsign.

It appears that the bus, judging from the gray paint pattern on the top of the bus, is an ex-OCTA bus built in 1995 (making it 16 years old). Apparently after retirement a number of these buses served as shuttles for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, and some have found their way to tour operators. However if this is ex-OCTA, the OCTA buses were in the 5300 and 5400 series so it's been renumbered.

I don't know of any PCC buses that serve the Barbur TC, and Wilsonville SMART buses always layover at their designated stop (the first stop) and not this side of the driveway. However I didn't see the Operator. So the mystery continues...it would be interesting if this was actually in TriMet service, but why would TriMet be replacing 21 year old buses with 16 year old buses? After all, New Flyer has a bunch of 2001-2004 built D60LFs for sale...they are at least only 7-10 years old...

The Massachusetts State House has approved a measure that would curb the rights of public sector unions. The bill would prevent public employees from collectively bargaining over their health benefits. The measure is similar to Republican bills passed in Wisconsin and Ohio, but unlike those states, the Massachusetts House is controlled by Democrats. The measure now goes to the Massachusetts State Senate.

Taxi come when you wave. Stop wherever you are. Take you where you want to go. Taxi stop if you running after it. Drop you where you want. Taxi expensive.

Bus have stops. Run on schedule. Bus not stop if you wave. Bus not stop if you shout f-word. Bus not stop unless you at bus stop. You not see bus until it pulling away? Bus keep going. Bus cheap to ride.

Bus BIG. Taxi SMALL.

B. Bus Driver There to Drive Bus

Bus driver not make schedules. Bus driver not responsible for cuts due to economic downturn. Bus driver not one who assigned 40 foot bus to run needing 60 foot bus. Schedules, cuts and other things above bus driver's pay grade.

Bureaucracy BIG. Bus driver SMALL.

C. Bus Driver Only Human

Bus driver not able to overcome laws of physics. Bus driver not able to make bus fly over traffic. Bus driver not make potholes big, seats small, or seat-mate smelly. Bus driver not hit potholes on purpose (bus driver also on bumpy bus for much longer than you). Bus driver not one who spilled coffee on floor near back of bus. Bus driver not late to make rider angry.

Reality BIG. Patience of Some Riders SMALL.

D. Bus Driver Work Hard

May not seem so, but driving bus not a joy ride. Bus driver deal with crazies. Bus driver deal with angry yuppies. Bus driver deal with being beat up, spit on, hit and worse. Bus driver deal with angry drivers with busy middle finger. You mean that not mean bus driver "number one"? No. Does not. Means driver with busy middle-finger asshole who not like buses.

Bus driver work long hours away from families. Bus driver work split shifts, sometimes no breaks. Bouncy bus hard on bus driver's muscles and bones. Bus driver enjoys job of driving bus for nice passengers but sometimes bad passengers and others make job difficult. Bus driver sometimes treated like bus driver five years old by boss, even if bus driver a grown-up with kids of own, and college degree.

Bus driver work in environment made hard by suits. Politicians wear suits. Big time managers too.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

This will be the basis of my BOLI complaint if HR fails to do the job properly on my complaint.

659A.203 Prohibited conduct by public employer. (1) Subject to ORS 659A.206, except as provided in ORS 659A.200 to 659A.224, it is an unlawful employment practice for any public employer to:

(a) Prohibit any employee from discussing, in response to an official request, either specifically or generally with any member of the Legislative Assembly or legislative committee staff acting under the direction of a member of the Legislative Assembly the activities of:

(A) The state or any agency of or political subdivision in the state; or

(B) Any person authorized to act on behalf of the state or any agency of or political subdivision in the state.

(b) Prohibit any employee from disclosing, or take or threaten to take disciplinary action against an employee for the disclosure of any information that the employee reasonably believes is evidence of:

(A) A violation of any federal or state law, rule or regulation by the state, agency or political subdivision;

(B) Mismanagement, gross waste of funds or abuse of authority or substantial and specific danger to public health and safety resulting from action of the state, agency or political subdivision; or

In Libya, a NATO air strike has killed 12 rebels and wounded five in Misurata. The attack marks the second time this month NATO planes have mistakenly bombed the Libyan opposition. The United States, meanwhile, has ordered the expenditure of some $25 million in surplus government goods to support the rebel forces. On Wednesday, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Gene Cretz, said the rebels are deserving of U.S. backing.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled businesses facing arbitration can force customers or employees to pursue their cases individually rather than joining in a class action. The 5-4 decision reverses a California Supreme Court ruling that allowed customers to form a class with others, even if they had signed arbitration agreements barring class actions. The ruling could jeopardize a pending effort by at least 500,000 female workers to bring a class action sexual discrimination case against the retail giant Wal-Mart.

I'm in favor of this. Pair them with an operator or let them move freely at the transit centers! I would take either of them in a second around with me and let them see what our job really entails, and let them meet a bunch of us operators!
What's wrong with that?

It has been brought to my attention that there is a certain station agent at Powell garage who has been targeting particular operators. The station agent vigorously looks for violations for these operators.

In the latest case, an extra board operator called in for his work assignment for the next day. The station agent went out of his way to look up this operators paddle and found that he might have been on the road somewhere.

With that information the station agent "wrote up" the operator for cell phone us and the operator received a 5 day suspension.

It turned out that the operator was on the route but the bus was stopped and secured at the time of the cell phone call.

As is always the case with our current management the discipline meted out does not fit the crime. There was a "technical" violation of the rules but absolutely no safety hazard, however the suspension is being applied.

The obvious problem is how to deal with power hungry station agents who go out of their way to find fault, and the executives who have no ethics.

Be wary operators, at all times, the executioner is looking for you next!

Trimet secrecy laws (aka HR rules) prohibit me from disclosing the name of the station agent.

You may remember Chris Day did an excellent post about a safety hazard on his route 4. If you missed it you can find it HERE!

He got the usual bullshit reply as us operators always do, here is his synopsis:

So they are keeping the reroute as is and went this direction with it.

My first question is:

How does the regular cars that travel that street know that busses are allowed to travel the opposite way?

This is a perfect example about TriMet sticking to their set plan and not worry about the confusion it may cause. So rather than putting out bound routes on Wills and inbound routes on Arlington TriMet prefers to get permission from the City to go straight on a right turn only and to travel the wrong way on a single lane meant to go the opposite way. I am sure the residences that is use to the normal flow of traffic is enjoying this change. Unbelievable isn’t it…..

Now about the Safety Stop Sign…. It is one of our white and blue temporary stop signs that someone put up with the back side showing and had hand written with a sharpie “Bus Safety Stop” I will have to go and get a picture of it….

My final thought on this reply is that last part where it is stated that they will be adding an “except bus” to that right turn…. Why would they do that if this reroute expires on the 5th? Is this going to be the standard reroute used?

I must be missing something because I think it would have been a lot less confusing with the idea I have…. Plus as far as I can see no operator other than myself has done the “S” turn.

240 high floor buses, 360 low floor buses, 425 have air conditioning and 175 do not

FTA funding for buses - eligibility is at 12 years.

Peer comparison - the average bus age at similar transit agencies is 7.4 years. Our average bus age is 12.

In the next meeting, there will be 2 contracts for bus procurement.
- among features of new bus models, better wheelchair accessibility - changes ratio of wheelchair ramps from 1:4 to 1:6

Board member Lehrbach - wanted to know if operators were involved in selection of new buses - answer was yes, bus models are brought to yard, operators can operate them in the yard or ride with a representative on the road

Board member Olanrewaju - wants to see money saved by replacing older buses with new ones to make sure it's worth it.(Clearly board member Olanrewaju has never ridden in a 1700 series bus when it's 90 degrees out)

A project “unlike any in the United States in both price and ambition to link a big city and a suburb by streetcar,” according to The Oregonian, deserves a vote by city council in favor of local taxpayers, not for a plan that hugely favors TriMet, Metro and Portland developers. Continue to develop Lake Oswego as a delightful suburban town, not as a district of Portland.

This morning I saw the YCTA 44 bus go by with their full-size Eldorado National Axess bus in a full body wrap for Portland Community College.

It appears that at the Tigard Transit Center that there's been some confusion over what that bus is, so YCTA made a small change. On the right side window next to the entry door is now a large YCTA logo, and underneath it are the words:

"This bus does not go to PCC".

Of course there's also the destination sign above it that reads "44 LINK" (or the inexplicable "45X Link Express", since YCTA's timetables don't even mention a line 45)...then "To Tigard via Newberg" (or "To McMinnville via Newberg"), and then the sign blanks out.

It reminds me of the timetables for TriMet's old 201 route (now 87s) which would state in big bold letters "This bus does NOT serve Portland International Airport, please use route 12S (or in later years, MAX Red Line)."

Portland Oregon
Sat Apr 30th 2011

Hello Uncutters!! Portland is at it again!
A demonstration is planned for Saturday, April 30th on Se Hawthorne. Please visit the facebook event page for details or visit us on facebook to socialize & meet other uncutters @ PDXUNCUT.
A large number of Uncutters also plan to join the Mayday March in downtown Portland on Sunday May 1st as well to fly our anti tax dodging colors!! Join us!

The State of Vermont has moved one step closer to becoming the first state to establish a single-payer healthcare system that guarantees coverage to all residents. On Tuesday, Vermont’s Democratic-led Senate voted 21-8 to support the healthcare bill. The Vermont House has already passed a similar measure. Once the two bills are reconciled, Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin is expected to sign the bill into law.

In business news, oil giant BP is reporting it made just $7 billion in the first quarter of the year, a 17 percent increase in profits. BP’s profits come at a time when the price of a gallon of gasoline has topped $4 in many parts of the country. On Tuesday, President Obama called for an end to $4 billion in tax breaks for the oil and gas industry.

Word is that John and Yvette, (the two are inseparable nowadays apparently)have scheduled some more travel of questionable content. This time they are heading out of town to attend the woman's and black caucuses.

Instead, Gustafson thinks perhaps it's time to scrap Free Rail Zone entirely and replace it with a free bike zone (a.k.a. a bike-share system).
"One of the things you could do is get rid of Free Rail Zone, but replace it with a readily available bike [share] program so people could still circulate for 30 minutes at no cost." Or, put another way, "Reshape the fareless zone to put a greater emphasis on carbon-free circulation; and the best free circulation in the Central City probably ought to be on bikes."http://bikeportland.org/2011/04/26/how-bike-sharing-could-spur-revamp-of-transit-fares-in-portland-51109

Luckily for the rat keepers of global capitalism, they have little to fear when it comes to American moths being attracted to the candle of reason. Reason is boring stuff in a nation -- and increasingly, a world -- whose cultural glue is television, and whose main diversion is profoundly simplified emotionalism and conflict. In fact, in the American rat race, reason is not only a fatal weakness, but is also generally unavailable to a people who stay janked every waking moment, ready to take on the next rat, then go home and watch more rats do each other in on television, in a steady diet of visible conflict, both overt an implied. Given that the human nervous system is programmed to respond instantly to conflict, there simply is no mental space left for much quiet thought to take root. Not when your nation's cultural values resemble those of Tamerlain or Aleric the Goth -- tribal, hierarchical, aggressive and acquisitive.
Whether in Belize or America, neither the owners of government nor their subset of social and financial managers are going to respond to any well reasoned, socially beneficial cause unless they are forced to do so -- with emphasis on the word force. Social progress and a humane environment is antithetical to the success of the owning and governing classes -- both being exactly the same thing in a nation whose Constitution is essentially a guarantee of the rights of property.

A pair of iPhone users have filed a lawsuit against Apple claiming that the company is secretly recording movements of iPhone and iPad users. The suit comes a week after technology researchers revealed that the iPhone had been designed to secretly track a user’s location and store information on the device for a year, without the user’s knowledge. Attorney Aaron Mayer said, “We take issue specifically with the notion that Apple is now basically tracking people everywhere they go. If you are a federal marshal, you have to have a warrant to do this kind of thing, and Apple is doing it without one.”

PTONews (formerly Puget Sound Transit Operators is on hiatus until further notice. After a long year of many articles covering many topics, I’m taking a break from online communication, and have gone “off the grid”. I’ve even deactivated my FaceBook page.While I’ve enjoyed the cathartic nature and some of the feedback generated by the blog – many have used the content I’ve put out here as fodder to render personal attacks against me, and far more people have taken the time to send me negative feedback than positive. With that in mind, I’m re-grouping to re-discover the job that I truly love without quite so much focus on the irritating stuff, and may return to posting at some point in the future.The content of PSTO has been preserved here, so all archives remain available.-Jeff Welch

Editor’s Note: Many Americans feel helpless in the face of the organized power of the elites, whether it’s the neocon dominance of foreign policy or corporate control of the economy.And, when a safety valve is needed to relieve the pressure of public discontent, those same forces manipulate the voters to go after social spending or government regulation, explaining why the elites continue to win, as Danny Schechter notes in this guest essay:HERE!

At least 177 corpses have been recovered in the last few weeks, most of them, officials now say, passengers snatched from interstate buses, tortured and slaughtered. Women were raped before being killed, and some victims were burned alive, according to accounts from survivors who eventually overcame their fears and came forward.The slayings have horrified a Mexican public already awash in violence and led commentators to call them "our Auschwitz" and a "Mexican genocide."Worse yet is the realization that the killing in Tamaulipas state has been going on for months — including the brutal slayings of bus passengers — and no one, not the bus companies, nor the police, nor the officials in charge, acted to stop it .

Metro is currently recruiting TriMet riders to participate in a focus group about walking, bicycling, and transit use. TriMet is helping to extend this opportunity to participate in the focus group to be conducted on Saturday, April 30, 2011. The group will be facilitated by the non-partisan research firm Davis, Hibbitts and Midghall (DHM) in Downtown Portland. DHM is specifically looking for TriMet riders who live in either Washington or Clackamas County. Participants will be joining residents from Multnomah County. If you think you might qualify for this paid research project, please call DHM at 503-220-0575 Monday through Friday 9 a.m.to 5 p.m. and ask for Jenny or Rebecca.

A deboarding deaf person collided with a blind person getting on the bus 12 at Barbour Transit Center. Deaf person was getting off because they were upset with the operator after being told the HC card was expired. Operator gave the person a transfer but told them the card was expired.

(I thought those cards were good for another year yet and if the person is obviously deaf or blind WTF does anybody need to see the damn card for!?)

Congressman Edward Markey of Massachusetts has called for a congressional investigation into the computer giant Apple after researchers revealed the iPhone was secretly collecting and storing detailed location information on the phone. The iPhone controversy continues to grow. The Wall Street Journal reports today that the iPhone is collecting and storing location information, even when location services are turned off. Last week, the Journal reported that the iPhone and cellphones powered by Google Android software were also directly transmitting their locations back to Google and Apple.

The whistleblowing website WikiLeaks has begun releasing thousands of secret documents from the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The documents reveal the Bush and Obama administrations knowingly imprisoned more than 150 innocent men for years without charge. In dozens of cases, senior U.S. commanders were said to have concluded that there was no reason for the men to have been transferred to Guantánamo. Among the innocent prisoners were an 89-year-old Afghan villager and a 14-year-old boy who had been kidnapped. Some men were imprisoned at Guantánamo simply because they wore a certain model of Casio watches, which had been used as timers by al-Qaeda. The documents also reveal that the journalist Sami al-Hajj was held at Guantánamo for six years partly in order to be interrogated about his employer, the Al Jazeera news network. Al-Hajj’s file said he was sent to Guantánamo in order to "provide information on...the al-Jazeera news network’s training programme, telecommunications equipment, and news gathering operations in Chechnya, Kosovo and Afghanistan."

Sunday, April 24, 2011

I wonder how wise this wanton inattention probably isn’t. The United States has a grave racial problem that isn’t getting better. The problem is not the black middle class, which is about like any other, but the dangerously angry underclass of the graveyard cities—Newark, Detroit, DC, Chicago, Trenton, Dade, Richmond, Atlanta, on and on. I’ve spent many nights in such places. It’s ugly. And it’s explosive. Depending on your politics, you can blame blacks, whites, God, terrorists, or sunspots, none of which changes anything.

What to do with David Sale? He needs to spend an entire shift with a Trimet bus driver, someone like Dan Christensen would be great. He needs to see the world of bus driving through our eyes. He will never understand until he does something like that. I do not and never will agree that our culture is "unsafe". US News and World report debunks that the concept of Trimet being an unsafe transit district. Yes we have a few "clowns" that seem to have eluded all the layers of bureaucracy and ended up working were they should never have been, but basically we operate a safe system.

It wasn't the girls going wild at a Michigan bar.
Police say a 51-year-old Portland, Ore., man attacked a Girls Gone Wild tour bus after he became disgruntled due to a lack of women at a party at the Red Horse Bar in Saginaw Township on Wednesday night, the Saginaw News reported Friday.
According to cops, the man tore the side mirrors off the pink tour bus, decorated with huge images of scantily-clad women on the side, while it was parked outside the bar.
Police said the man became irate because fliers said there would be barely-dressed women at the party. A co-owner of the bar told the newspaper the event was a "shim-sham" and no women from Girls Gone Wild entered the bar, despite patrons paying a $10 cover charge.
The man was arrested, but there was no word on charges.

While the culture of safety assurance lies with every aspect of TriMet operations and management, day to day responsibility is centered in its Operations Division. An all-hands retreat of Operations management staff was held in November 2010 to determine how the Task Force recommendations might best be translated into a detailed work plan. Today, that plan calls out approximately 200 tasks, which are being implemented and tracked. TriMet is committed to not only implementing, but in sustaining these changes.

In the year ahead, the safety-oriented work program will mature into a “Safety Management System”, departing from the very useful framework of recommendations provided with the Safety and Service Excellence Task Force recommendation. This will be part of a maturation process that will move TriMet from reaction an integrated and sustainable approach that is proactive and eventually predictive.

This is America's future, one of government-induced privation and societal misery. Study the dominant social themes of the elite, its recent fear-based promotions, and one begins to get a sense more fully of what is being prepared. The signs are increasingly visible.

Friday, April 22, 2011

According to settlement papers released by the ACLU, Fenton will get back his $86,110-a-year position, receive backpay at a rate of $331.20 per day since he was fired and he'll receive $25,000 for "Mr. Fenton's pain and suffering." The settlement also states that Fenton will not have to "disavow or recant that conduct" and will not have to undergo any "sensitivity training.""Our government cannot pick and choose whose free speech rights are protected, based on whether or not they approve of the content of our statements or actions," Fenton said in a statement. "This is the very essence of the First Amendment.http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/04/22/135635324/new-jersey-to-rehire-transit-worker-fired-for-burning-quran